Behind the Green Wall: a novel

The Hospital

Every hospital should have a plaque in the
physicians' and students' entrances. "There are
some patients whom we cannot help; there are
none whom we cannot harm. "
—Arthur L. Bloomfield, 1888-1962

New York Park Hospital (NYPH) stands in the midst of a quaint brownstone neighborhood of Brooklyn. Its solid complex of buildings has dominated the neighborhood of Park Ridge since the late nineteenth century. The Park, as it is more commonly known, proudly serves the ever-changing Brooklyn community, adopting itself to the shifts in time.

From the posters exhibited on the wall of its grandiose lobby-like entrance, one can learn about the history of the NYPH. When founded, around the same time that the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, it was called the Park Hospital—not "Brooklyn's Hospital" and not "New York Hospital." The "New York" suffix was added more than one hundred years later when the hospital merged into one of the giant medical hospital complexes organized by the city's ivory towers.

Actually, the new name sounds a little more trustworthy and even appealing in a commercial sense, particularly with the new subtitle: "Affiliated with the New York Center-Manhattan University Medical School." But even without the bombastic titles the old Park Hospital was a grand institution, nourished by the great Brooklyn of its time and providing state of the art medical care for citizens.

Over the years the Park changed with the community. After the WASPs left, the Irish arrived, then the Italians. Ambitious sons of immigrants went to medical schools, specialized, and returned to Brooklyn.

NOTE: Life Means Nothing Behind the Green Wall. This is the first page of the book, numbered page 3. If you would like to read more, come back in another day or two. Or send email to the post person for this blog.